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Context No. 983 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

2 Maccabees 10:14-23: in context

14But when Gorgias was made governor of the district, he maintained a force of mercenaries, and at every turn kept up war with the Jews. 15Together with him the Idumaeans also, being masters of important strongholds, harassed the Jews; and received those who had taken refuge from Jerusalem, they endeavored to keep up the war. 16But Maccabaeus and his men, having made solemn supplication and having implored God to fight on their side, rushed upon the strongholds of the Idumaeans. 17Assaulting them vigorously, they took control of the positions, and kept off all who fought upon the wall, and killed those whom they encountered, killing no fewer than twenty thousand. 18Because no fewer than nine thousand had fled into two very strong towers having everything needed for a siege, 19Maccabaeus, having left Simon and Joseph, and also Zacchaeus and those who were with him, a force sufficient to besiege them, departed himself to places where he was most needed. 20But Simon and those who were with him, yielding to covetousness, were bribed by some of those who were in the towers, and receiving seventy thousand drachmas, let some of them slip away. 21But when word was brought to Maccabaeus of what was done, he gathered the leaders of the people together, and accused those men of having sold their kindred for money by setting their enemies free to fight against them. 22So he killed these men for having turned traitors, and immediately took possession of the two towers. 23Prospering with his weapons in everything he undertook, he destroyed more than twenty thousand in the two strongholds.

Judas Maccabeus is fighting the Idumeans and the mercenaries under Gorgias, who keep the war going against the Jews. After earnest prayer, asking God to fight on their side, Judas storms the strongholds and takes them, and nine thousand of the enemy flee into two strong towers. Judas leaves Simon and others to besiege them and goes on to fight elsewhere. But Simon's men, giving in to greed, take a bribe of seventy thousand drachmas and let some of the enemy slip away. When Judas learns of it, he gathers the leaders, accuses these men of selling their own people for money, executes the traitors, and takes the towers.

The interesting turn in this battle story is not the fighting but the betrayal from within. The enemy outside could be beaten, but the real damage came from Judas's own men, who under the pressure of a besieging assignment let themselves be bought, taking a bribe to free the very enemies they were supposed to hold. The writer names the cause exactly: yielding to covetousness. Greed did what the enemy army could not, cracking the ranks of God's people from the inside. It is a sobering pattern, that a cause can survive its external opponents and be undone by the private corruption of those inside it, people who quietly put personal profit above the people they were meant to protect. Judas treats it with grave seriousness, calling it selling their kindred, because that is what a bribe to free the enemy amounts to. The threat to a faithful community is often not the obvious foe outside the wall but the small, purchasable disloyalty within.

Where might I be quietly for sale, letting personal gain buy off my loyalty to the people and the cause I am meant to be faithful to?

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